Gotoh Locking Vintage Oval Knob 6-In-Line Tuners

About This Item

6-in-line locking tuners that are the perfect upgrade for old or new Fenders with "Kluson-style" tuners — they're a direct retrofit!

These fine reproductions feature old style stamped gear housings, but have modern improved 15:1 gearing for smoother, more precise action.

All sets include mounting screws and round press-fit peghead bushings. Peghole spacing is 4-11/16" (119.06mm). 11/32" (8.73mm)-diameter pegholes required. Please note that 3 of the tuners have a green decal on the back of the machine. These 3 machines have a smaller diameter string hole, and are to be used with the unwound (G,B,E) strings.

Nickel.

Installation Tips

Bushings: We recommend the #2062 Bushing Reamer (.340" diameter) to cut a clean, accurate counterbore for a professional job. Fit the press-fit tuner bushings correctly so your tuners will work smoothly.

Mounting screws: Pilot holes required. Installing delicate screws into hard wood requires great care and accuracy. We highly recommend the #1713 Depth-stop Drill Bit (No.44 bit) for the pilot hole before installing these screws. Lubricate the screw threads with cutting lubricant (also wax or a bar of soap) to reduce friction and help them thread properly.

Kay rebuild

Crazy !! I saw a Stew Mac video using these tuners on a 60s Kay, as I was rebuilding a 60s Kay with the same headstock, for a friend of mine. He loves the way it turned out plus the benefit of locking the strings.

Good for thinline telecaster

I put these on my China made Fender Thinline Tele. They fit well and are an upgrade from the stock tuners. You'll probably need wood putty to fill in old holes, hand drill, bit and a straight edge for alignment. It's still an easy project and the locking tuners are quite good.

Good look and practical function

These have a simple lock feature that engages when the string is tightened. You must keep tension on the string until the lock engages. You can make an error if you open the string locks too much and suffer from string winding on post (high E, especially). The higher 3 strings get special tuners with smaller clearance to the string inside the hole of the tuner. The trick is to open the holes only as much as you need to insert the string easily. When I did this, I had an easy time of string change. They look truly vintage in design and the lock feature is hidden.It would be nice to have them in an aged finish like the one offerred on the non-locking type.

Great drop-in Locking Tuner

I installed these on my Fender American Classic Baja Tele. They drop right into place with no reaming or modifications of any kind, actually, I was able to leave the original bushings in place. They operate a lot differently than my other locking tuners, but I think they will actually string up faster. Yes, they are very stiff, but they are brand new and I'm not concerned about that.

LOOK ELSEWHERE

These look vintage and that is nice. The locking mechanism is poor, basically a sleeve you screw down onto the post of the tuner. It can very easily get lost and requires a screwdriver. The slot heads are shallow and the slot edges quickly become chewed up. Save your money. Also no lefty.

Stiff and not the same as Fender packaged Gotoh.

First off, these came in a generic plastic bag, and say Gotoh nowhere. The action of the tuners was stiff and inconsistent from one tuner to the other.

As for sizing, I bought these for my Fender American Vintage '59. They would not fit with the existing bushings because the post is narrower than the stock vintage tuner. The bushings that came with the Gotoh were to small and deep to install in the Fender without plugging the holes and redrilling them.

I ended up getting the Fender branded Gotoh and the bushings that came with them were the right size to install in the Fender neck without modification. Also, the Fender branded were less stiff and more consistent.

Great, quick, easy and cheap.

I put this on a Classic Vibe 60s neck. I had read the reviews and so I knew that with the Kluson style vintage tuners I had on them only these would fit without having to do any adjustments.

Indeed, I knew that I would have to heat up the original bushings to get them out of the Classic Vibe and then route larger holes to fit any of the heavy duty locking tuners.

I had also read the warnings about the poor quality screws which come with this product so I forewarned I was also forearmed.

I installed these leaving the original bushings in and reusing the original screws.

Ridiculously simple and a perfect fit for this type of guitar. Changing strings on a conventional guitar is more difficult than INSTALLING these new locking tuners.

They work great for mind tremolo work but I would probably feel better with some of the heavier duty lockers if I were doing lots of dive bombs. These tuners also don't add any mass to the headstock like the more expensive ones do, so you don't benefit from the improved sustain which MIGHT come along with that extra mass. - But then again you aren't losing anything from your conventional tuners either.

I would recommend these to anyone looking for quick string changing and a bit better stability for conservative tremolo work.

I would add that, for me, installing a graphtech nut made greater difference in tuning stability than did the locking tuners.